Vertical Spinning Machine

ABSTRACT

Provide a vertical spinning machine enabling to control the height of the vertical spinning machine at a height not requiring any disassembling at the time of transportation.  
     A vertical spinning machine for performing drawing with a drawing roller R by having a mandrel M disposed on the spindle  3  and rotatably fixing the work W mounted on the mandrel M from above the work W by means of the pressing member  11  of the tailstock  10,  wherein the tailstock  10  is disposed in a way to be able to move to out of the shaft axis area of the mandrel M through a traversing means  20.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention concerns a vertical spinning machine, more specifically a vertical spinning machine enabling to control the height of equipment.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, a vertical spinning machine is used in such a case as automatically performing the working in a plurality of processes, by aligning the spindles and supplying pulley works one after another to the respective spindles by means of a conveying mechanism, etc. (see patent documents 1, 2, for example).

A vertical spinning machine, which has an advantage of enabling to reduce the installed surface area to be occupied, compared with a horizontal spinning machine, is utilized in a case where there is some restriction to the installed surface area, etc., in addition to the above-mentioned case.

By the way, when applied to a wheel work formed into a wheel by drawing an aluminium casting material, a conventional vertical spinning machine has a spindle 3 turning around a shaft axis in vertical direction by means of an electric motor (not illustrated) disposed on the frame 2 of the vertical spinning machine 50, and a mandrel M corresponding to the work W to be processed disposed on this spindle 3, as shown in FIG. 8.

Over the spindle 3 is disposed a tailstock 51 for fixing the work W mounted on the mandrel M by pressing it from above. This tailstock 51 is provided with a pressing member 52 for urging the work W, by getting in contact with it, toward the mandrel M side, and a pressurizing means 53 such as hydraulic cylinder, etc. for moving the pressing member 52 up and down. The pressing member 52 is rotatably mounted at the tip of the rod of the pressurizing means 53, through a rotating member such as bearing, etc., so that it may turn together with the work W.

On the frame 2 is disposed a tool rest 4, but its number is not particularly restricted and a plurality of tool rests 4 may be disposed, depending on the contents of processing of the work W.

On the tool rest 4 is disposed a drawing bench 5 equipped with a drawing roller R for forming the work W into a desired shape by getting in contact with the work W, in both the direction of X axis (direction perpendicular to the spindle 3) and the direction of Z axis (direction parallel to the spindle 3).

This vertical spinning machine 50 turns the work W placed on the mandrel M along the spindle 3, by pressing and fixing it from above by means of the pressing member 52 of the tailstock 51.

Next, by moving the drawing roller R in the direction of X axis and the direction of Z axis, in the state in contact with the work W, the machine performs spinning on the work W by following the mandrel M.

After that, it moves the pressing member 52 of the tailstock 51 upward, and extracts the work W from the mandrel M by using a proper means, to complete the processing.

By the way, on this vertical spinning machine 50, the stroke L1 in vertical direction of the tailstock 51 is determined according to the size of the largest work W to be submitted to spinning. Namely, in performing spinning, it is necessary to secure a stroke enabling to raise the pressing member 52 of the tailstock 51 to the position where the work W can be placed on the mandrel M and, after the working, extracted from the mandrel M.

For example, the raised position of the pressing member 52 (position of the pressing member 52 where the work W is placed on the mandrel M and extracted from the mandrel M) comes to a height of 2 m or so from the floor face, with a vertical spinning machine for performing spinning of an aluminium wheel with a diameter of 17 to 22 inches and a width of 7 to 10 inches after the working and, furthermore, the hydraulic cylinder used as pressurizing means 53 to be disposed at the top of the tailstock 51 requires a maximum stroke L1 of approximately 600 mm. For that reason, the height of the vertical spinning machine exceeds 4 m from the floor face.

And, a system with a height over 4 m as this vertical spinning machine exceeds the limit of height imposed by the Road Traffic Act with a normally used trailer, on the occasion of transportation of the equipment from the place of manufacturing to the place of installation. For that reason, it becomes necessary to disassemble the once assembled equipment (removing the tailstock 51, on a vertical spinning machine, for example), and reassemble it again after carrying it to the place of installation, thus presenting a problem of requiring a large amount of troublesome work and an increase of cost.

Patent document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H2-6024

Patent document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. S62-77620

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention

In view of the above-described problems of the conventional vertical spinning machine, the objective of the present invention is to provide a vertical spinning machine enabling to control the height of the vertical spinning machine at a height not requiring disassembling at the time of transportation.

Means for Solving the Problems

To achieve the above-described objective, the vertical spinning machine according to the present invention is a vertical spinning machine for performing drawing with a drawing roller, by having a mandrel disposed on the spindle and rotatably fixing the work W mounted on the mandrel from above the work by means of the pressing member of the tailstock, characterized in that the tailstock is disposed in a way to be able to move to out of the shaft axis area of the mandrel through a traversing means.

In that case, the traversing means may be composed of a rail disposed on the main body side, and a fitting member for fitting with the rail, disposed on an arm extended from the tailstock.

Moreover, a work grasping mechanism may be disposed on the pressing member of the tailstock.

Advantages of the Invention

According to the vertical spinning machine of the present invention, in which the tailstock is disposed in a way to be able to move to out of the shaft axis area of the mandrel through a traversing means, the tailstock can be moved, by means of the traversing means, to a shelter position away from above the work placed on the mandrel. This makes it possible, in the spinning work, to reduce the moving distance when making the pressing member of the tailstock go up so that the work can be placed on the mandrel and, after the working, extracted from the mandrel, shorten the length of the hydraulic cylinder, etc. as pressurizing means, and control the height of the vertical spinning machine at a height not requiring disassembling at the time of transportation.

Furthermore, by composing the traversing means with a rail disposed on the main body side and a fitting member for fitting with the rail disposed on an arm extended from the tailstock, it becomes possible to increase the accuracy and rigidity of the traversing means, by using a simple mechanism.

Still more, by disposing a work grasping mechanism on the pressing member of the tailstock, the feed and discharge of works can be automated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a partially sectional front elevation showing the first embodiment of the vertical spinning machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cut-out plan view of above.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory drawing of the traversing means, (a) being a partially cut-out front elevation, and (b) an expanded view of the rail and the fitting member.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the tailstock, (a) being a partially cut-out front elevation, and (b) an arrow view of X-X in (a).

FIG. 5 is a partially sectional front elevation showing the second embodiment of the vertical spinning machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a partially cut-out front elevation showing an example of the grasping mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a partially cut-out front elevation showing a modified example of the grasping mechanism.

FIG. 8 is a partially sectional front elevation of the conventional vertical spinning machine.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS AND SIGNS

1: Vertical spinning machine

3: Spindle

7: Main body (upper scaffolding)

10: Tailstock

11: Pressing member

12: Pressurizing means

13: Arm

20: Traversing means

21: Rail

22: Fitting member

23: Driving mechanism

30: Grasping mechanism

M: Mandrel

R: Drawing roller

W: Work

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the vertical spinning machine according to the present invention will be explained below with reference to drawings.

Embodiment 1

FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 show the first embodiment of the vertical spinning machine according to the present invention.

This vertical spinning machine 1 is a vertical spinning machine for performing drawing with a drawing roller R, by having a mandrel M disposed on the spindle 3 turning around the shaft axis in the vertical direction and rotatably fixing the work W mounted on the mandrel M from above this work W by means of the pressing member 11 of the tailstock 10, wherein the tailstock 10 is disposed in a way to be able to move to out of the shaft axis area of the spindle 3 (side direction of the shaft axis in the illustrated example) through a traversing means 20.

In that case, the traversing means 20 is composed of a rail 21 disposed on the main body side or, to be concrete, on the bottom face of the upper scaffolding 7 installed on the leg 8 provided upward from the frame 2 (in this embodiment, the rail 21, which is disposed in both the direction of X axis (direction perpendicular to the spindle 3) and the direction of Z axis (direction parallel to the spindle 3), as shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 3, can be disposed also in the direction of X axis), a fitting member 22 for fitting with this rail 21 disposed on an arm 13 extended from the tailstock 10, and a driving mechanism 23 for moving the tailstock 10.

The rail 21 forms a concave portion 21 a at the central part on both side faces, as shown in FIG. 3, so that the slide fitting face 22 a of the fitting member 22 may be engaged in this concave portion 21 a.

Moreover, for the driving mechanism 23, an optional driving mechanism such as servo motor, hydraulic cylinder, etc. may be used. And, in the case where a hydraulic cylinder is used for the driving mechanism 23, the tip of the cylinder rod of the hydraulic cylinder is coupled with the tip of the arm 13, thereby enabling to move the tailstock 10, with extension and contraction of the hydraulic cylinder, in the direction perpendicular to the spindle 3 (horizontal direction) by a distance N from the position of the solid line to the position of the broken line indicated in FIG. 2.

As a result, the tailstock 10 is mounted on the upper scaffolding 7 of the vertical spinning machine 1 through the traversing means 20.

The tailstock 10 is provided with a pressing member 11 for urging the work W, by getting in contact with it, toward the mandrel M side, and a pressurizing means 12 such as hydraulic cylinder, etc. for moving the pressing member 11 up and down. The pressing member 11 is rotatably mounted at the tip of the rod of the pressurizing means 12, through a rotating member B such as bearing, etc., so that it may turn together with the work W.

On the tailstock 10, the hydraulic cylinder serving as pressurizing means 12 may also be of stationary type, as shown in FIG. 4. In that case, the tailstock body 10 a and the pressing member 11 are realized in a U-shaped structure 10 b to be able to freely move forward and backward, against the hydraulic cylinder and the piston. In addition, the concave & convex portion 12 b constructed at the tip of the pressurizing means 12 and the sliding portion 11 c disposed above the pressing member 11 are realized in a way to be coupled and separated, and the gripping claw 13 a is opened to outside (position of solid line in the illustrated example) after the fitting of the concave & convex portion 12 b and the sliding portion 11 c, to transmit the pressing force of the pressurizing means 12 to the pressing member 11.

On the frame 2 is disposed a tool rest 4, but its number is not particularly restricted and a plurality of tool rests 4 may be disposed, depending on the contents of processing of the work W.

On the tool rest 4 is disposed a drawing bench 5 equipped with a drawing roller R for forming the work W into a desired shape by getting in contact with the work W, in a way to be able to move in both the direction of X axis (direction perpendicular to the spindle 3) and the direction of Z axis (direction parallel to the spindle 3).

This vertical spinning machine 1 turns the work W placed on the mandrel M along the spindle 3, by pressing and fixing it from above by means of the pressing member 11 of the tailstock 10.

Next, the drawing roller R is pressed against the work W to perform spinning by following the mandrel M.

After that, the pressing member 11 of the tailstock 10 is moved upward, to be separated from the work W. And then, the tailstock 10 is moved, by the traversing means 20, to a shelter position in the side direction away from above the work W or, to be concrete, in the direction perpendicular to the spindle 3 (horizontal direction) by a distance N from the position of the solid line to the position of the broken line indicated in FIG. 2. As a result, the tailstock 10 is removed from the area above the work W placed on the mandrel M. After that, the loader & unloader mechanism (not illustrated) is put into operation, to extract the work W from the mandrel M to complete the working.

This makes it possible to reduce the distance of moving upward (stroke L2 of the pressing member 11 of the tailstock 10) when making the pressing member 11 of the tailstock 10 get away from the work W, shorten the length of the hydraulic cylinder, etc. as pressurizing means 12, and control the height of the vertical spinning machine at a height not requiring any disassembling at the time of transportation (control the overall height of the system to 3 m or so, with a vertical spinning machine for performing spinning of an aluminium wheel with a diameter of 17 to 22 inches and a width of 7 to 10 inches, for example).

As for the stroke of the hydraulic cylinder as pressurizing means 12, it will be enough for discharging the function if there is a stroke enabling the pressing member 11 to separate from the contact face of the work W regardless of the size of the work W, in the case where the difference of size between of the work W and the mandrel M is absorbed by an adapter, etc. inserted on the top face H2 of the spindle 3 (at the top face of the work), with reference to the top face Hi of the work W in the state fit in the mandrel M, for example, as shown in FIG. 1. Furthermore, in the case where the top face H2 of the spindle 3 is taken as reference position (reference to the top face of the spindle), without using any adapter, etc., a stroke is required which is slightly larger than the difference in height of the work W of the smallest size to the largest size having a chance of being processed with a change of setup of the vertical spinning machine concerned.

Embodiment 2

FIG. 5 to FIG. 6 show the second embodiment of the vertical spinning machine according to the present invention.

This vertical spinning machine 1 is provided with a gripping mechanism 30 on the pressing member 11, when performing processing of a work W of comparatively small size (to be concrete, with a width no more than 7 inches).

The gripping mechanism 30 is composed of a claw member 31 in curved shape for chucking the work W, and an expansion mechanism 32 composed of air bearing, etc. for opening/closing this claw member 31.

The claw member 31 has one end attached as fulcrum 31 a to a mounting member 33 disposed on the outer circumferential face of the non-rotating portion 11 a above the rotating portion 11 b, turning together with the work W, of the pressing member 11, so that the tip of the expansion mechanism 32 may be mounted at the point of application 31 b at a proper distance from this fulcrum 31 a.

The expansion mechanism 32 has its tip coupled with the point of application 31 b, and has the other end 32 a fixed to a proper point of the tailstock 10.

The claw member 31 and the expansion mechanism 32 will be disposed on the circumference of the pressing member 11 in a number no less than 2 pairs, preferably either 3 pairs or 4 pairs.

The gripping mechanism 30 is available for utilization only when the width P2 of the molded piece W1 is smaller than the distance P1 from the bottom of the pressing member 11 (top face of the molded piece W1) to the top face of the mandrel M at the raised position of the pressing member 11 determined by the stroke L3 of the hydraulic cylinder as pressurizing means 12, as shown in FIG. 6.

And, because this gripping mechanism 30 is designed to open the claw member 31 by contracting the expansion mechanism 32, hold the work W by closing the claw member 31 by extending the expansion mechanism 32 from that state and, conversely, close the claw member 31 by extending the expansion mechanism 32, and release the work W by opening the claw member 31 by contracting the expansion mechanism 32 from that state, it becomes possible to place (load) the work W on the mandrel M, and extract the work W (molded piece W1) from the mandrel M after the processing and deliver (unload) it to a conveyor, etc. to be described later, by operating this gripping mechanism 30 in linkage with the up-down motion of the pressing member 11 of the tailstock 10, in the execution of a spinning work, thus enabling to automate the feed and discharge of the work W to and from the mandrel M.

The feed and discharge of the work W to and from the mandrel M may be made through a carrying means such as conveyor, etc. (not illustrated) connected to the moving position of the tailstock 10 indicated with broken line in FIG. 2, for example.

The gripping mechanism 30 may also be constructed as in a modified example indicated in FIG. 7, in addition to the one described above.

This gripping mechanism 30A, extended from the non-rotating portion 11 a of the pressing member 11 and inserted in a hole Wa provided at the center on the top face of the work W, is composed of a supporting bar 34 of a diameter slightly smaller than that of the hole Wa, and a protruding member 35, acting with air or hydraulic pressure, disposed on the circumferential face of this supporting bar 34. The protruding member 35 will be provided in a number no less than 2, preferably 3 or 4 pieces, on the circumferential face of the supporting bar 34. The air or hydraulic pressure used for operating the protruding member 35 will be supplied through the supporting bar 34 from a lifting mechanism (not illustrated) disposed on the non-rotating portion 11 a side of the pressing member 11.

And, this gripping mechanism 30, which can hold the work W by extending the protruding member 35 from the state in which the protruding member 35 is stored in the supporting bar 34 and, conversely, release the work W by storing the protruding member 35 in the supporting bar 34 from the state in which the protruding member 35 is protruded, it becomes possible to place (load) the work W on the mandrel M, and extract (unload) the work W (molded piece W1) from the mandrel M after the processing, by operating this gripping mechanism 30 in linkage with the up-down motion of the pressing member 11 of the tailstock 10, in the execution of a spinning work, thus enabling to automate the feed and discharge of the work W to and from the mandrel M.

Other constructions and actions of the vertical spinning machine of the second embodiment indicated in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 and of its modified embodiment indicated in FIG. 7 are the same as those of the vertical spinning machine of the first embodiment indicated in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3.

So far, the vertical spinning machine according to the present invention has been explained based on a plurality of embodiments, but the present invention is not restricted to the constructions described in the above-mentioned embodiments but can be changed in construction as desired within a range not deviating from its main purpose.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The vertical spinning machine according to the present invention, capable of controlling the height of the vertical spinning machine at a height not requiring any disassembling at the time of transportation, not only enables to reduce the amount of troublesome work and the cost of transportation but also can be used suitably in the case where there is some restriction to the conditions of installation such as small ceiling height, etc. 

1. A vertical spinning machine for performing drawing with a drawing roller, by having a mandrel disposed on the spindle and rotatably fixing the work mounted on the mandrel from above the work by means of the pressing member of the tailstock, characterized in that the tailstock is disposed in a way to be able to move to out of the shaft axis area of the mandrel through a traversing means.
 2. A vertical spinning machine as defined in claim 1, wherein the traversing means is composed of a rail disposed on the main body side, and a fitting member for fitting with the rail, disposed on an arm extended from the tailstock.
 3. A vertical spinning machine as defined in claim 2, wherein a work grasping mechanism is disposed on the pressing member of the tailstock. 